Reggae on
the Androscoggin

The festival

Culture Reggae Festival is one long summer day of roots reggae and live music, with Caribbean food and craft vendors, on the riverfront in Lisbon Falls, Maine. International artists share the stage with Maine's own reggae bands, and the whole thing runs from 2 in the afternoon until 10 at night.

It started in 2024. Turbulence and Warrior King headlined the first year; Ginjah closed the second, with Zuggu Dan, Ky-enie King and Abby Dallas alongside Gorilla Finger Dub from Portland and Part One Tribe from Cape Cod. Both years were built from scratch by a small team with a lot of heart, and both were covered by WMPG 90.9 FM, Greater Portland's community radio station.

We sat out 2026. Two years in, it was clear the festival deserved more than we could give it while building it by hand every summer — so we're rebuilding the foundation: the organization, the partnerships, the way we reach people. 2027 is the result.

The place

The Worumbo Riverfront Event Center sits on the site of the Worumbo Mill, founded in 1864 on the bank of the Androscoggin River, whose fine woolens were known well beyond Maine. The mill burned in 1987 and its last building came down in 2016. The Town of Lisbon bought the riverfront in 2019 and turned it into a community event ground, run by Friends of Worumbo — a level green lawn with open sky, the river running past, and Main Street a short walk away.

Lisbon Falls is about 15 minutes from Brunswick and Lewiston-Auburn, 35 from Portland and roughly two and a half hours from Boston. Plan your visit.

Why the first weekend of August

The festival is timed to the week Jamaica celebrates Emancipation Day on August 1 and Independence Day on August 6 — a week of music, food and pride across the Caribbean and its diaspora.

Who's behind it

Culture Reggae Festival was founded by Rayon Wilson, who was born in Jamaica and has called Maine home since 1996. He remembers when big reggae shows came to Maine and wanted to bring them back.

The festival is produced in Lisbon Falls. If you'd like to help build it — as a partner, a vendor, a volunteer or an artist — we'd love to hear from you.